Skip to main content

AT&T joins Verizon in 5G testing this year, promising speeds 10-100x faster than LTE

Verizon began lab-testing its 5G network last year, aiming to carry out the first real-world tests this year, and AT&T has now announced that it will be doing the same. The company seems even more optimistic than Verizon, which estimated 5G speeds some 30-50 times faster than LTE.

We expect 5G to deliver speeds 10-100 times faster than today’s average 4G LTE connections. Customers will see speeds measured in gigabits per second, not megabits. For reference, at one gigabit per second, you can download a TV show in less than 3 seconds. 

Don’t get too excited just yet, though, as there are a couple of small hurdles to be overcome first …

The first is that there is as yet no international agreement on 5G standards. Carriers are currently using their own ideas of the best technology for high-speed data services, but the eventual tech used need to be agreed by 3GPP – the international body originally formed way back in 1998 to agree 3G standards. This is going to take some time.

The original timetable called for a draft standard to be published by 2018, with rollout sometime between then and 2020, but some players are pushing hard for at least some level of 5G service to be offered next year. Re/code reports that AT&T hopes to use the high-speed wireless service to offer broadband to homes in remote areas, and that it can do this even before mobile data standards are finalized.

The second hurdle for iPhone fans is Apple’s attitude to new standards. Apple often adopts a wait-and-see policy, having waited until 2012 to include LTE in the iPhone 5 – some two years after carriers began offering the service. Apple did, though, move more swiftly with LTE Advanced (LTE-A), adding support for the 150Mbit/s fast-track LTE service in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus

Image: nablabs.org

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. pateljj04 - 8 years ago

    Gigabit speeds are irrelevant if there is a data cap of 10-20gb. Unless they are also going to offer unlimited data those speeds mean nothing.

  2. Given the outrageous costs of data on verizon wireless, faster speeds will only mean more money for them. I’m in no rush for higher speeds

    • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

      So 3G would be cool with you? How does faster speed = more data usage? I mean if it’s so fast that you just want to download large files and don’t acknowledge that there is a data cap, and therefore are a moron, then sure, but if you’re intelligent then it’s only beneficial. Although, it will mean very little for anything except large files, which still won’t be downloaded due to caps. So, yes, very little point to it with caps, but it doesn’t mean more data usage for intelligent people.

      • pateljj04 - 8 years ago

        Then why have faster speeds at all if you are not going to use it. Twitter loads just as fast on 3g vs 4g lte right now. I don’t notice a difference and I am willing to wait an extra second for stuff to load. More usage does = more data usage. Why have 5g if I can’t watch netflix without worrying about reaching my data cap.

      • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 8 years ago

        lol. Yes, it’s quite the double edged sword.

        I could see Apple adopting it if the 5g chips offer improved battery life at lower lte speeds. Maybe whatever makes this speed possible would also make data transfers in general more efficient.

    • jillxz - 8 years ago

      AT&T data charge is just as out rageous as Verizon’s. Verizon has 200%better customer support and that means a lot to me.

  3. Digital Rob - 8 years ago

    This would be a long time before it’s rolled out, especially in all the areas they should be in. They might have great service plans but that is useless if service/signal stinks is major areas… They are definitely not the worst but far from the best…

  4. Archimo (@archimo) - 8 years ago

    You are missing two ‘on’s’ in the second paragraph. ‘to ge agreed (on) by 3gpp’ and ‘in 1998 to agree(on) 3G’

    • Ben Lovejoy - 8 years ago

      Thanks for the comment, but you can agree something as well as agree on something.

      • You did use “and” back to back in the first sentence of the article:

        “Verizon began lab-testing its 5G network last year, aiming to carry out the first real-world tests this year, and and AT&T has now announced that it will be doing the same.”

  5. Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 8 years ago

    I don’t see a benefit right now for speeds alone.

    I could see this being interesting if there was some kind of efficiency gain from the new cell technology that could positively affect battery life. Does boosting power to the antenna for shorter bursts of time help? Or does this new tech’s power consumption scale linearly with speed?

    • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 8 years ago

      Huh, that is pretty interesting. So maybe if they don’t use all of the antenna’s we’d still benefit from the improved signal processing to get similar performance to today’s lte but maybe with some energy saving. I probably sound like a broken record with the energy savings bit but that’s the most exciting prospect of this to me. I’m not usually downloading big files over cellular.

      Even if we don’t it’s amazing they got that much extra from the same spectrum.

  6. Inaba-kun (@Inaba_kun) - 8 years ago

    Uncapped is vastly more important than raw speed. Where I am in the UK there’s not much 4G on offer (it’s cities only for the most part, and I live in a town), but my 3G is uncapped. I used around 25gb last month on 3G and it cost me a mere £12.

  7. tomtubbs - 8 years ago

    What’s the ability of 5G to penetrate the signal into buildings? Better than 3/4G?

  8. pubman51 (@pubman51) - 8 years ago

    I guess 5G would be nice… for now I would prefer having Verizon’s 4G/LTE network actually work. We have to turn LTE off on our iphone 6 phones just to get reliable voice calls. When LTE is turned on, we get dropped calls or calls where our voices drop out. So fix 4G first. We’re in Salt Lake city where Verizon claims there is full LTE coverage… not the case.

    • William Monto - 8 years ago

      I agree with the other posts that I would prefer reliable LTE at this point on Verizon. I am on Long Island, but I travel quite a bit around the country. LTE is slow or non existent in LaGuardia airport and when you travel down the Long Island Expressway during rush hour you will often see your phone switch to 3G where it was LTE during a non-rush hour time. However, if you are driving between Amarillo, TX and Oklahoma City you could probably download a 3 GB file quickly. Likewise I was in downtown Houston, TX recently and data was either slow or pretty much non-existent during normal business hours. The only way I see this gets better is if the the improved speed of these new technologies actually allow for devices to spend less time on the network downloading thereby adding great network capacity. For now, I will take consistent 10 Mbps speeds and when a mobile environment and be contented by that for years!

  9. William Monto - 8 years ago

    To be honest, I would be content with Verizon with a CONSISTENT 10 MBPS speed. The Verizon data network is saturated in a lot of metro areas. It is especially bad in some of their home turf markets like New York. Try using your phone for data in Laguardia Airport or on the Long Island Expressway during rush hour and watch your phone drop into 3G. However, drive between Amarillo, TX and Albuquerque, NM and you’ll be able to watch Netflix the whole way in HD. The only reason I see for this is for the actual device to spend less time communicating with the network thereby reducing the efficiency and increasing the capacity of the network. They don’t like to say this, they just say well in our optimal tests, you’ll be able to throw away your home internet connection. The true reason for this is to increase network capacity without adding too much infrastructure (try marketing that)– and that’s fine with me, because it probably means better data consistency and increased battery life. Like I said, I just want a consistent 10 MBPS speed!

  10. bedrone - 8 years ago

    If Apple don’t support it, fine. I’ll trash apple in a heartbeat. Ever since they refuse to fix my mother’s iPhone 6 Camera problem which they had a massive recall, I will never support nor buy Apple ever again.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


Ben Lovejoy's favorite gear